Thanksgivings and Prayers Requests

Dear Prayer Partners,

Developments at NBGC have been wonderful even if fraught at times. However, the problems are small in relation to the blessings, so let us start with the latter. You might like to download the interim administrator's latest report for greater details.
Thanks. Trevor and Tina.

Give thanks for the building that has been completely renovated on the new site and is currently in use for teaching and as a temporary dormitory, and the the fact that the actual dormitory and toilets are almost completed.

Give thanks that we have 32 new students bringing our total to 50 (10 more than we had planned for!). Do pray for them.

Give thanks that we have so many generous sponsors for them. Thank God for the finances that have come our way and the promises made to us for the future.

Thank God for the very warm welcome we received at St Paul's University, Limuru and that we are now a fully affiliated university college offering a diploma in theology. We rejoice that we have 15 first year students embarking on this programme.

Give thanks for God's blessing us with excellent staff, both full and part-time, to ensure quality teaching.

Give thanks for yourselves, our prayer partners all over the world.

Pray for the smoothing out of the hiccups we have encountered.

Pray that the Revd Joseph Taban is soon enabled to come and teach at the college as planned. He is key to the progress of the new diploma students, and his delay is threatening to damage their prospects. Pray also that Mark Mayool will soon be able to join the staff part-time as hoped. Pray for the students in their frustration. Even though we are prepared to do long hours to try and cover, we cannot be in two places at the same time, and it is painful to see the students suffer.

Pray that the money being sent from England flows without problems. We have had to delay the work twice in the last month because of the banks raising difficulties. We trust they have at last been overcome.

Pray for the powerhouse here that they will come and connect up the electricity as promised. All they require has been paid them, but somehow we don't seem to be priority. This makes life very difficult for the students who are studying by torchlight. Our logistic officer has spent hours on this work when there is so much else to do.

Pray also for Andy Wheeler who was planning to be with us and teach in October with a team from Guildford. We were so much looking forward to his coming but he has been told he needs medical treatment which will prevent him from coming. Pray that he may soon be put right and be able to come before long.

Pray that we can let an empty house soon at a good rent so that we can guarantee our funding.

Our dreams ...

Pray that we can soon start building the new staff housing so that our staff can be comfortably accommodated on site. This has to be approved by a committee of persons in the province. Pray that it is not held up at this stage.

Pray that we can find someone prepared to invest in a major conference centre on the site, to both enhance the project and provide some investment income in the long term.

Pray that donors can be found for "stage two" of the project, a multi-purpose chapel. This will enable the new site to really come together and effective teaching to be done in one place (it is hard for both students and staff trailing about three quarters of a mile from one site to the other on foot). It will also enable us to expand the college further.

New Beginnings

Thanks for your patience in waiting for our latest from Juba. Things have been so busy it has been impossible to keep up with all the reporting etc. But all the busyness has been worthwhile. In the last month we have a new site to add to our old one, 30+ new students, four new members of staff, and a new affiliation to St Paul's University, Limuru, Kenya! The Salisbury Appeal by Bishop David did indeed bring in the £66,000 for which he asked. Brilliant. Add to this £10,000 from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the £4000 we got from Bridport when we left in January 2009, and we are well on the way to completely renovating two large buildings on our new site, originally built in the early 1990s through the foresight of the then principal, Canon Benaiah. Sadly he died before this site could be properly developed. Indeed the dormitory building was not even completed. It is now. We plan to move the students into this building at the end of next week. We have also constructed a new sanitary block with tiled flooring - which is more than many enjoy here. Check out our latest pictures from the picasaweb website (see links on the right-hand side of the page). This next thing is staff housing. It's a question of whether we can afford one or two houses. If we can build two that will release a house for rent in the neighbour and raise a possible $18,000 more dollars income next year.

We have been inundated with more students than we were looking for. But when bishops and archbishops and all the kingdom of heaven put pressure on you, what can you do? We've got them them in - somehow. So we now have two more classes to add to the existing ones. Tina has 7 in her full-time English group. There are 13 in the foundation year - this consists of students who have not got the qualifications to get into the diploma course. Then there are the two diploma years, one and three (the continuing students). Being affiliated to St Paul's means that we are now a university college offering a university diploma in theology. Trevor and Daniela went to Limuru at the end of August and were very warmly greeted and inducted into all that is necessary to run the course. It was well that the welcome was warm, because the weather was not. The temperate hovered around 12C - and, of course, none of the rooms are heated. It took four thick blankets to be warm enough at night. After three days the cold just soaks right in. Oh, how we were glad to be back in Juba at 30C! Here is a picture of the new library at St Paul's


All through this period our house has been full too. We have had a young woman from the MU called Sarah stay, as well as a doctor and her helper from Uganda. Queueing for the bathroom would not have been so back at times if we had abundant water. However, we only got to the point where we had to carry in from a distance once. We have got through a few candles too as the electricity seems to be feast of famine. We learned that the town powerhouse ran out of fuel. The political situation here is interesting. The CPA requires a referendum in January 2011 for the people of the south to decide on weather or not they want to succeed and become a separate nation. The general feeling is that that is what people want. However the process appears to be stalled with the registration for the referendum due next month and nothing yet having been announced. So people are concerned. However, we have timed our semesters to enable the students to vote in Juba so we will be back in session on Wednesday, 5th January. We will finish early, therefore, and be in England for all of December.